
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



D0D17qSDE3E 




Qass b 16SL 
Rnnk C. UJJ_ 



Price, 10 Cents. 




Published & Printed by John Adams, 
Waltham, Mass.^ 
1886. 



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05 



NORUMBEGA. 



3^t 



How many, maay years the old legend has been repeated, three 
or four hundred, doubtless, of a civilized city once found in the 
then savage wilds of New England : but which marvellously dis- 
appeared, or eluded search, and could never again be discovered i 
What strange race was it which lived here then, neither white nor 
red, but with arts and inventions different from either ? All our 
poets have in turn rebuilt those old castles up into the air of their 
fancy. Public opinion has generally been in favor of Bangor, Me., 
as its probable site, — though its ruins have never been found 
there, — chiefly because the old maps represented it upon a large 
river on the northern part of our coast. Bangor has been proud of 
its precursoress ; Norumbega is the pet word there ; — Norumbega 
Hall, Norumbega Block, — Lodge, — Society, — Market, — Shoe- 
thread, — Hens ; everything beloved is Norumbega. 

But lo and hallo ! Norumbega has turned up, in a great measure, 
on the Charles river, in Massachusetts, this spring ; and alas ! 
Bangor shoethread is now an orphan ! Possibly, Norum was twins, 
however, as will be seen further on. At any rate, Bangor will evi- 
dently soon be out-Norumbega-ed in Waltham and Weston, if we 
judge by the multitudinous christenings already had here. 

The lively discusions evoked by the recent discoveries are nothing 
new; but are only a renewal of a warfare of centuries' duration. 
Many old books might be quoted here to show that savage quill- 
fights have been waged, in regard to whether there ever was such a 
place ; and, if so, whither it had fled ; in which many a mutual 
defamation of character was committed among the participants. 

And since the recent assaults on Columbus, wherein our wise 
men have branded the old hero as a humbug and plagiarist, they 
have nosed up this partly forgotten bone of contention again* 
The research among the records of old discoverers and explorers 
has thrown new light on the vexed question. Dr. Kohl, of Bremen, 



Germany, was one who dug especially deep in the discovery question 
and unearthed more old maps and documents bearing upon it than 
were ever known of before. This lively old antiquary exhumed 
sundry old maps which put the river Norumbega in the 42 d degree 
of latitude where the Charles River is, instead of in the 44th where 
the Penobscot is. 

Whether it was Kohl's mention in 1868, or something else which 
suggested to Prof. E. N. Horsford, the eminent scientist of Cam' 
bridge, the removal of the lost city to this vicinity, his forthcoming 
work will perhaps tell. At all events, after making an examination 
of the evidence, so well satisfied was he that the junction of the 
Stony Brook with the Charles River was the place to look for 
proof, that he drove there and found the landmarks which have 
since excited so much interest. The delight of the Weston farmers 
to think they once were a city has been great. It makes their 
vegetables grow so fast that they can hear them. And Roberts 
Pond has actually turned completely inside out. 

What Do the Old Books say ? 

What, then, was this original Norumbega Legend ? 

"An ancient great city," says one writer in 1570, "with a skill- 
ful and dextrous people having thread of cotton." 

" Up said river about fifteen leagues," says Allfonsce in 1530, 
there is a town called Norumbega, and there is in it a good people, 
and they have many peltries of many kinds of animals." 

" A story which had gained currency from a period as far back 
as the time of Allfonsce, about a large native town in the vicinity 
whose inhabitants had attained to some of the higher arts of civ- 
ilization, was wholly without foundation." So said Champlain in 
1550, on his return from the Western Continent. It is thought 
that the finding of the great city was the prime motive of his 
voyage. 



Another writer says the people were black, and their city near 
or in Florida. 

" One of the finest rivers in the world called Norumbegue," said 
Thevet, a monk and a celebrated French traveller, whose book 
claimed to describe our whole coast in 1556 from Florida to Nova 
Scotia. " The French had formerly erected a little fort ten or 
twelve leagues from its mouth." Dudley, in 1656, speaks of 
Charlestown as " three leagues up the Charles River." And as the 
mouth of Stony Brook is four leagues above Charlestown, the 
"ten or twelve" would be a fair guess, — certainly as near as 
Bangor, Me., which is seventeen leagues up the Penobscot. 

Thus we have the explorers' words ; next we will quote their 
maps. 

What do the Maps say? 

On a French map dated 1543 is a river, widening as it goes 
down and looking like Deadeye's pant-leg. Up at the right is a 
picture of a fort, thus : 




On Mercator's map of 1569 the fort is larger, and marked "No- 
rumbega." It is on the right of a river marked R Grande. Each 
has Y branches Quite probably it was improved from the former. 




On Wytfliet's map of 1597, North America, with the picture of 
one single fine city, is like the countenance and eye of the late 
lamented General Cyclops. This is also marked " Norumbega,'' 
but is stretched across the Y. 




In this the river is marked " R. Grande." A fort, like a story, 
doesn't lose anything by repetition ; and this legend gained accep- 
tance all over Europe. 

What does the Name Include ? 

The name Norumbega is not now known to have been used 
before 1537, when in an account quoted by Ramusio from a French 
captain is the passage : 

"The country is called by its people Nurumbega." 

And this was the generally accepted name of this continent 
until its permanent settlement after 1630. Capt. John Smith 
speaks of Virginia in 1620 as a part of Norumbega. 

Meanwhile, Thevet in 1556 designates the ^/z^^r by that name ; 
while Mercator's map of 1569 and Wytfliet's of 1597 both call the 
river '^R. Grande," and the city "Norombega." Thus the name 
was sometimes given to a city, sometimes to a fort, sometimes to a 
river, sometimes to a district, and sometimes to the whole country. 

Its Derivation. 

Professor Horsford says : "Norumbega was an Algonquin word." 
Thevet says, that in 1556 the Iroquois were at war with the Al- 
gonquins, and temporarily had possession here. The Massachuset 
tribes which our forefathers knew here were Algonquin. 

Thevet says : " We call the river Norumbega ; but the aborigines 
call it Agoncy." 



Ramusio says : " The country is called by its people Nurumbega. 
There grow the orange and the almond." This might derive the 
word from some of the southern Cherokee dialects. 

On the French map of 1543, the name of the river was given as 
AoumbjquL. It may be that that was the original form of the word 
and that it was afterwards corrupted into Norumbega. The name 
was certainly variegated considerably in spelling by the old author- 
ities, thus : Norum-, Norom-, Norem-, Nurum-, Nurem-, -bega, 
-begua, -bee, -beque. Ramusio calls it Nurembeque. Ruscelli in 
1 561 puts it as Nuremberg. May it not have been named after the 
little old city in Bavaria. Artemus says a man is a fool who can't 
spell a word more than one way. 

In Paradise Lost, Lib. X., Milton spells it thus : 

"Now from the north 
Of Norumbegua and the Samoed shore, 
Bursting their brazen dungeon, arm'd with ice 
And snow," etc. 

Its Meaning. 

The documentary evidence is, we thus find, as contradictory as 
to derivation and orthography as it is as to locality. The meaning 
of the word has been considered important evidence ; but the 
many meanings given it by our best linguists are as diverse as the 
spellings, and remind one of the contents of a country store, — 
you can get anything from it that you want. We will spare oui 
readers' tears by forbearing to quote the many-colored translations, 
— all improbable. From such a Babel of dialects as the American 
Indians had, no value can be attached to any alleged translation as 
evidence on the questions. 

Its Latitude. 

On the matter of latitude there is considerable concurrence, 
however, as before stated. Thevet's latitude for the river is 42- 
14' ; his longitude 311° 50 , which we should now reckon as ne?r 



Constantinople ! But their ways were not as our ways, nor their 
thoughts as our thoughts. This latitude may indicate either the 
Charles, the Mystic, or the Merrimack. Any one who was only 
acquainted with European rivers might call either of these " One 
of the finest rivers in the world," if he did not sail up too far. 
The Y is poorly represented on either of them, 

With our minds bewildered rather than enlightened by all this 
legendary rubbish, we now turn to the newly discovered works 
themselves, hoping for. intelligence of the runaway city. What may 
be seen at the mouth of the Stony Brook ? Multitudes of pilgrims 
travel thither this season, to give a guess on the great conundrum, 
and to eat sardines. 

The Earthworks. 

Going by the Fitchburg Railroad, one debarks at Roberts' Sta- 
tion, and follows the left-hand road quarter of a mile. By the 
steamer White Swan from Waitham one lands at Lily Point and 
rows quarter of a mile to Roberts' Paper Mill, or follows up the 
riverside on foot, which is about twice as far. 

On the right of the street at the mill one sees mighty excavations 
going on, where scores of carts and barrows are preparing the 
drained bed of the mill-pond for a monster reservoir, to wet the 
myriad whistles of the thirsty city of Cambridge. Last year they 
drank their own pond dry and then bought this one. Stony Brook 
was originally ten or fifteen feet wide here. Then it was dammed 
for the mill into a fine lake half a mile in length by an eighth 
broad. The dam is just by the bridge where the street crosses. 
A few rods above begins the ditch or moat which is part of the 
new discovery. A cross-line of cobbles v/ould indicate a once little 
dam made to turn part of the stream into the moat. This ditch 
foUov/s down the side of the brook a dozen rods nearly to the 
river ; then, cutting through the point of land follows up the river- 
bank to a cove. There it emptied into the river when it was a 
waterway, many generations ago. 



Here must have worked a large and busy band of men, then, as 
now, to dig this extensive ditch, 2300 feet long — nearly half a mile, 
and perhaps ten feet deep in places ; in others but two, through 
land solid with paving-stones. And yet we cannot learn what 
language they used to swear in at the cobbles ! 

For what object could such a trench have been excavated if not 
to protect a fort ? All the lads of this century hereabouts have 
observed it as they have wandered through these woods with their 
fish-poles and their pockets full of mudworms, and have thought — 
as many still think — that it was for a waterway while the dam was 
building, not realizing its unnecessary length. 

Another suggestion was of its being a fish-way, which the 
law till within fifty years required around dams for salmon to go up 
to visit their country relatives in berry time ; but if it had been for 
them, the highway would have had a culvert, and it would have 
been seen in use by people now living. 

Irrigation has also been suggested, but a glance at the soil will 
dispel that theory. 

Granting, however, that either of these purposes would account 
for the existence of the moat, there other evidences of fortification 
which are more conclusive. 

, The Hill and the Walls. 

After crossing the South street bridge you take the first cart-path 
to the left. Near the Charles River bank will be found a little hill, 
very round and with steep sides, — a perfect site for a small fortifi- 
cation. This hill-top would accommodate a hundred men. Below, 
by its side, and towards the two streams, is an oblong inclosure of 
walls protected in front by the deep moat. It is a very primitive 
affair , but there is not much doubt of its defensive purpose. On 
the hilltop, no doubt, were the larger strongholds built of logs. 



8 



All around the water-front was the moat. xAnd on this side of the 
mill we find long stretches of bank-wall built into its steep slopes, 
rendering them steeper and hard to climb. It will be difficult to 
give the walls any agricultural explanation. They are three or four 
feet in hight, built of cobbles. 



The Riverwall. 



Then in the river we find something still more remarkable. Here 
the Charles is near half a mile wide, — the larger part of that width 
•being occupied by two islands towards the further or Auburndale 
shore. There is in the river a wall, long and heavy, connecting the 
island with the further shore ; shutting off the shorter passage and 
making boats take a long detour by the fort. 

As part of the beautiful Fowle Estate, this wall has been changed 
into a promenade. But many remember its original form as it was 
a few years ago. It was certainly an unaccountable construction, 
a mysterious barrier in the unfrequented stream. Considered -in 
connection with the earthworks by its side, the river-wall presents 
convincing evidence of there having been an important station 
here. 

Its Probable Date. 

The age of the work is a vital phase of the question. Till very 
recently these shores have been a wild, unbroken forest. Inside 
the trench there are many stumps of large-sized trees. These 
prove from one to two hundred years' age for the moat. At the 
^ime of King Philip's war, two hundred years ago, when he swept 
resistlessly over our new settlements, there was a proposition made 
in the General Court in Boston to protect the lower towns by build- 
ing a cordon of forts from the Charles to the Concord, taking 
advantage of the line of the Lincoln ponds ; but it is not probable 
that any were built at that or any other date by the Puritans. 



9 

They were such a book-writing lot that there would be some record 
of the fact ; for they never even killed a woodchuck without rush- 
ing into print. There were no wealthy farmers likely to spend 
hundreds of pounds on any foolish experiments here. 

If the Puritans did not fortify here, there are two other possible 
projectors, without crediting the legend of a fabulous black settle- 
ment on our river. One is the Indians themselves ; and the other 
is the European traders. 

Was it an Indian Fort ? 

The Indians not infrequently built strongholds, usually in a 
swampy fastness, but occasionally on a hill. These they would 
surround by a palisade of logs driven down and pointed on each 
end. But no case is on record of their digging a moat as a barrier. 
These Algonquins were an agricultural people, and would not de- 
cline the labor if it were thought of and desired. 

Was it a Traders' Fort? 

It seems much more probable, however, that it was white men's 
work. For more than a hundred years preceding the landing of 
the Pilgrims the invention of the compass had filled the North 
Atlantic with adventurers, some fishermen, some fur-traders, and 
some freebooters or pirates. Visiting these shores periodically, 
for longer or shorter, they must have a stronghold here. So far 
from carrying home intelligence, or publishing maps and travels, 
they would sedulously keep the secret of their Eldorado for their 
own benefit. They would build here a refuge ; but it must be out 
of sight. The head of tidewater was always five miles below here ; 
so no ship could come up, theirs or an enemy's. Leaving their 
ship unmanned at Watertown, or bringing up luggage so far, seems 
improbable and unnecessary. But Thevet says the fort was sur- 
rounded by fresh water,— and it was, no doubt, for a good purpose 



lO 



inaccessible by ships. Thus placing it, and the numbers evidently 
working here, '.vould indicate that it was a permanent station. Yet 
if many men had had a home here for years, the stones would 
have been picked up better. Their village was more likely to be 
on the intervale above. Rivers were the Indians' highways for 
trade or war. They could paddle as fast as they could walk, and 
carry their luggage much more easily. An Indian told the writer 
that he could paddle twelve hours a day for many days without ex- 
haustion. As a fur-trading depot this was well placed, and no 
doubt the rnen " struck it rich : " for furs commanded large prices 
in Europe at that time. 



Who was it here? 



Prof. Horsford calls attention to the old map of the world by 
Michael Lok, dated 1582, upon which New England is represented 
by a large island, and is marked '• Norombega," with the explor- 
er's name and datie upon it, thus: "J. Gabot 1497." That was 
one year before Columbus discovered the main land. This map 
shows that he followed up the river of 42° latitude. 



Thus this may be Cabot's " Landfall." 

Or it may be near the mysterious antique city, — another Pom- 
peii. 

Or it may be the site of the '' Httle fort the French had formerly 
erected," mentioned by Champlain. 

Or it may have been simply one of a multitude of forts which 
are the invariable accompaniment of river settlements in a new 
country, the like of which is known to have existed on nearly every 
river on our whole coast. 



II 



The digging up of a single relic, part of a weapon or utensil, 
would date it at once better than all theorizing. But with all the 
recent digging, below and above the street, nothing but two arrow- 
heads has yet been found ; and those are in any field. Of what- 
ever age it may be, it is certainly an interesting and important his- 
torical discovery, and one upon which there is every probability of 
further light. There were no graves in those days on account of 
the sacrilegious ravages of the wolves. And any block house 
must have long ago passed into decay. So there is but little left 
above ground to tell a definite tale. J. W. C. 



' 



